ABSTRACT
Psychoanalysis is one among several methods of major psychotherapy. But it has singular guidelines, such as the privileged place it accords to interpretation. Laplanche and Pontalis, in their Vocabulaire de la psychanalyse are right to say that psychoanalysis can be characterized by interpretation. In Sigmund Freud's work interpretation is defined basically as the path traversed by the analyst's understanding from manifest content to latent ideas. Interpretation is the instrument that makes the unconscious conscious. In Die Traumdeutung interpretation is equal and contrary to dream work: dream work goes from the latent ideas to the manifest content; interpretation crosses that same path. Didier and Annie Anzieu deal with interpretation in a series of important works, which add valuable elements to the concept of psychoanalytic interpretation. Interpretation was a central theme of Racker's investigation, which dealt thoroughly with its content and form, and with the resistances to making interpretations.
